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Table 4 -2. Changes in developed area between 1973 and 2000 for the four ecoregions (EPA Level 111) occurring <br />in North Carolina (Data: USGS National Land Cover Trends Project). Percentage of total area is indicated in <br />parentheses. <br />r:o111Ki'110o11 <br />Aches D 197 3` j <br />Acres (2000) <br />Il eirc ei nuage <br />c;JIminge <br />Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain <br />1,433,200 <br />(6.5 %) <br />1,988,500 <br />(9.0 %) <br />38.7% <br />Southeastern Plains <br />7,461,600 <br />(9.0 %) <br />8,543,400 <br />(10.3 %) <br />14.4% <br />Piedmont <br />4,866,000 <br />(11.9 %) <br />6,703,500 <br />(16.4 %) <br />37.8% <br />Blue Ridge Mountains <br />715,600 <br />(6.1%) <br />846,600 <br />(7.2 %) <br />18.3% <br />Data at the State and Low/ Scale <br />Investments in remote sensing and advances in <br />spatial technology have made land use and land cover <br />datasets increasingly available for use in the public <br />sector. While it remains true that the resolution of <br />the available data can present challenges for land <br />use planning, particularly at local scales, these data <br />sets are particularly useful in capturing changes over <br />time (assuming data from multiple time points are <br />available). It is important to keep in mind that for <br />any metric capturing change over time, the magni- <br />tude of change will depend on the time period and <br />geographic area under consideration, as well as the <br />definition of land use types used in the data model. <br />Here we review some of the more commonly used <br />data sets and provide a few examples that apply to <br />North Carolina. These and other data resources are <br />also listed in Appendix A. <br />Both the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) <br />and NOAAs Coastal Change Analysis Program <br />(CCAP) provide data on land use and land cover for <br />portions of the state of North Carolina (Appendix A). <br />NLCD provides data from 1992 and 2001, as well <br />as a retrofitted change product to allow comparison <br />between the time periods (differences in methodolo- <br />gies between the two periods make direct compari- <br />son impossible). The CCAP provides data from <br />1996, 2001, and 2006, but is limited geographically <br />to estuarine drainage area boundaries and thus maps <br />only a portion of North Carolina. Both data sets use <br />a modification of the Anderson classification system <br />(Anderson et al. 1976), which has relatively coarse <br />category definitions (e.g., deciduous forest, culti- <br />vated crops, open water). The USGS National Gap <br />Analysis Program (GAP) recently released a national <br />land cover map (based on 2001 satellite data) and <br />an online map viewer (http: / /www.g_ap.uidaho.edu/ <br />landcover.html). These maps utilize the NatureServe <br />Ecological Systems Classification, which provides a <br />consistent, detailed classification of vegetative types <br />across the U.S. The National GAP land cover map <br />contains 551 cover classes (82 of which occur in <br />North Carolina). The 2001 land cover map is simi- <br />lar to the 1992 North Carolina Gap Land Cover <br />which was crosswalked to the North Carolina Wild- <br />life Action Plan (NC WAP, NCWRC 2005) habi- <br />tat classes. A crosswalk from the 2001 land cover <br />to those same NC WAP habitat classes is available. <br />These regional and state data sets can be obtained <br />from the Southeast GAP Program (http: / /www. <br />basic.ncsu.edu /sewn). <br />Across the state of North Carolina, both the NLCD <br />and CCAP data sets show an approximately 6% <br />increase in urban /developed areas within the preced- <br />ing decades (Tables 4 -3, 4 -4). However, within <br />some areas, the rate of development has been much <br />higher. For example, Pitt County saw an increase <br />of almost 9% in developed area between 1996 and <br />